Samsung Stratosphere Cell Phone Reviews

by Cindy -- September 8th 2012 -- Spencer, OH

Since purchasing the Stratosphere in January of 2012, I have taken it back 7 times. Once even sending it to Samsung in Texas. My verizon tech was kind enough to lend me his phone for the 3 weeks while it was being "fixed" so I wasn't without a phone..WORST PHONE EVER. I have tried everything with no success from Verizon. Reading these other reviews has eased my mind cause I was beginning to think I have a chip in my brain that is causing all the distortion...teehee People sound like aliens, or I am sounding like I am in a tunnel. It randomly mutes or just hangs up. Tons of crackling and loud, loud popping noises that "they" say has never been reported with this phone...ha....They should read these reviews. I am canceling all 3 of my contract dates when they come up, and will never, ever deal with a Verizon contract again. Oh, there is also condensation that happens around the battery when the phone overheats. I was told that is a safety feature built into the smart phones to protect the phone from burning up...Never heard of this one!!!! Ok, thanx for letting me vent. I have been going crazy for 8 months and now I feel so much better.!!!!

by Jason -- August 19th 2012 -- Plantsville, CT

I bought this phone when it came out in October, it worked great for the first few months, then the software issues started, the phone shuts its self off even though fully charged, while you are using it it shuts off, data service keeps cutting out. I am on the 4th phone replacement and all have the same issue. Verizon states there are no known issues, but through contacts i have with verizon, i have been told there are major issues with this phone and they have been waiting for 6 months for a program patch to fix it. Until the software is fixed, don't buy this phone, unless you want a big headache!

by mas -- August 17th 2012 -- kokomo, IN

Not easy to use it freezes too much and the memory sucks.

by Chris -- August 7th 2012 -- Emporium, PA

I bought this phone and it worked great for a little bit, but then a month later when I text with the touch screen, the spacebar starts to delete everything I type and the "i" button kicks me out of the text message.

by Cathy -- July 31st 2012 -- Corona, CA

The call quality is HORRIBLE! If you want clarity RUN away from this phone. Verizon and Samsung refuse to acknowledge the call clarity issue. Had one of our two phones replaced & nothing changed. Our old cheap flip phone had awesome clarity. This phone is 100 steps back in time. These billion dollar corporations offered the solutions of sending in the phone for them to "check it out" leaving me with no phone at all OR I could buy another phone. That's how Verizon [& Samsung] treat loyal customers.We are warning all of our friends and will not purchase another Samsung piece of junk product of any type. Shame on Verizon for selling these phones & leaving us high and dry with a lousy phone and some lame email suggesting that the problem is something other than the substandard CLARITY. They do not stand behind the products they sell in their stores.

by Mike -- July 29th 2012 -- Columbus, OH

I have had this (along with my wife having one too) phone for about 3 months now with Verizon. These are actually our second set. Both of our phones had major issues to start and Verizon replaced them with new ones. Not a bad phone and I like not having to use the touch screen to text. The 4G rarely works on it. I don't know if its the phone or the service or both. The call quality could be a lot better. Web searching and minor gaming like words with friends is fine. It does devour batteries. Also the voice text is crap. It mixes up the languages from Spanish, English, and French. Not a terrible phone but do not match it with Verizon and there's probably a better one out there.

by melissa -- July 18th 2012 -- buffalo, NY

This phone.. well I was switching to Verizon, never having a smartphone before. I'm 17 so obviously smart phones are what most of my friends had. This phone had gone on sale for a new contract. I picked out the phone 1 day before I actually went to buy it. I read reviews for it the night before I bought it.. and they made me really nervous. I'm a big technology person and I didn't want my phone to go to waste. Having this phone.. has been awesome. It's fast and so easy to figure out. The battery life is excellent too, surprisingly. Turning data on and off is simple. The camera is great. They keyboard is awesome and easy to get used to. The touch screen is sensitive, but not hard to get used to. The screen is a little fragile, but I got 6 screen protectors from eBay for 99 cents and it works great. Honestly GET THIS PHONE. It is so well made and any problems can easily be typed in google and found the answers too. Its welllll worth it.

by Hannah -- June 18th 2012 -- Davis, CA

I just got this phone about a week ago, and so far I love it. I haven't had any problems with it, except for it tends to freeze when I try to exit out of the camera. It's easy to use and pretty self-explanatory, even for someone who's never owned a smartphone. The only cons I have for this phone: If someone sends you a picture, you have to have your data on and be in a 3g or 4g area to receive the picture, which is frustrating for me. Maybe all smart phones are like that, I don't know, but I've never had to do that before. The call clarity is iffy, though that might be because I'm currently in a low service area. It hasn't broken on me, and I've read reviews that say it randomly breaks so I bought the insurance with it. Also, I bought it because having a keyboard was super important to me, but I've ended up using the swype for the most part, so keep that in mind if that's the only reason you're getting this phone. Overall, I'm pleased with this phone so far, and for the price I got it for ($1) it was a steal. I would recommend it to my friends.

by Ozzie -- June 10th 2012 -- Huntington Beach, CA

I would highly recommend passing on this phone. I got it in December and discovered a bug with Qwerty keyboard acting as if 'hot keys' are programmed. Had this since day one. The phone is the most sensitive I have ever had and already had to replace one. On both the original and the replacement the memory card randomly disappears and when it returns whatever was on the phone has been deleted. I wanted the phone for the qwerty keyboard...I know greatly regret this decision and as much as I like some of the smart phone features I miss my silly old LG Flip phone. If you are determined to have a smart phone I would highly recommend doing searches for errors online first to check the quality of the product. Now I see that this Qwerty issue happens to everyone and Samsung has done nothing to fix...I guess they count on people only keeping a phone for 2 years so why bother...oh and another thing..when I want to use the regular phone...I have to use my hands free otherwise my ear touches the phone and it loses the call constantly. Bad phone.

by E.J. -- May 29th 2012 -- Cortland, NY

Despite all of the terrible things I had heard about this phone, I decided to follow the advice of the expert reviews on another site and purchase the Stratosphere. I haven't had any problems with the versatility of this phone or with the battery; as it is that I was helped out by my store clerk guru by downloading helpful apps. Yet, for the strangest of reasons, I am unable to receive any multimedia messages, even if the person is under the same carrier. You would think that a smartphone with 4G capability could handle just 1 lousy picture from an external source. If anyone has any advice in this matter, it would be most appreciated. As for the phone itself, other than nearly throwing it because of this stupidity, it's overall an excellent phone.